A very deft interplay of human characteristics and foibles overlain upon our stereotypes of animals. Thus, we meet with mice who taken in homeless animals they really shouldn’t, rodents who fall madly in cross-species love and then run out of things to say to one another once the sex has become mundane, annoying stork adolescents who receive their comeuppance, and so forth. The book is hard to put down because each story is so short and tasty, but it is best when read one story at a time with long intervals in between. Treat it like a box of chocolates. The illustrations by Ian Falconer are wonderful.